This invention generally relating to processing of video images and, in particular, to method of processing raw video images using single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) instructions and saturation arithmetic to achieve contrast management of the images.
In certain environments, particularly in medical imaging, display technology may have a more limited dynamic range than the video sensors being used to collect the video data images to be displayed. Therefore, it is usually necessary to modify the video signals to correspond the limited dynamic range of the display technology which will be used to display the video signals. In particular, in order to display video data, the dynamic range of the data must be mapped to the dynamic range of the display technology which will be used to display the data. In the past, lookup tables have been used to achieve the mapping, although such tables have processing speed and dynamic range limitations. In addition, the case of high speed video data, specialized hardware may be needed to provide contrast management.
There is a need for a simpler system and method for transforming the video data images so that their dynamic ranges corresponds to the dynamic range of the video display technology which will be used to display the images. There is also a need for such a system and method which linearly transforms the video data, which transformation is less taxing on the processor performing the transformation thereby reducing the processor requirements. There is also a need for such a system and method which linearly transforms the video data, which transformation reduces memory bandwidth requirements. There is also a need for such a system and method which linearly transforms the video data, which transformation clips output of the video range without requiring branches that degrade processor performance.